I found a trick somewhere in my library. A stack of silver coins turn gold, then turn red, then turn blue, then the top coin has all four colors on it!


It dawned on me that I could do this trick with a stack of cardboard key holders. (white cardboard disk with a metal ring around it and a wire circle to hold the key.) I could take the circle off, get some metallic Sharpies to make the gimmicks with, and I'd be good.

So I did.

Now I can't find the instructions. I THOUGHT they were in Tarbell, but going through the book, I can't find it.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks.

The trick was called Abbott's Chinese Coins and was sold by Abbott's Magic Company in Colon Michigan. It came with 16 coins and 4 sheets of mimeographed instruction.

Huh. OK, thanks.


So where did > I < see it?

It was advertised in the Abbott's Catalog in the 70's. That is where I found it years ago.

Ed, just tell me every book you've ever perused, every video you've watched, and every magician you've ever talked to or seen perform, and I will tell you where you saw it.

I get paid hourly

It was a book, I know that. I've been told it was in "Tarbell" and "Greater Magic." As I don't HAVE "Greater Magic," I assume it has to be in the original Tarbell course book my wife bought me. (She saw the two "Tannen" volumes I'd collected, and assumed this was the same thing, all collected together. We know better, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Besides, it IS a good book.)

I just wondered if it sounded familiar to anyone and if they might have an idea where it came from.

In fact. They did. So thanks to them for the help.

Can I charge anyway?

I wish I read Tarbell when I started... it was many years into my experience that I even heard of it.
I often find myself wondering where I learned something. I wonder sometimes if that's a good or bad thing.

It is just a thing that is.

Whether it's "good" or "bad" frankly depends on you.

If you want to keep it secret, put it in a book for this generation.

Hey, I was raised in the generation of books right before they died! I was 9 years old when Egon told the world "print is dead"
Unfortunately it's difficult to know of every magic book when you have no resources.

If I had known then what I know now... and yet still I buy books some 36 years after they passed away.
Speaking of which, Coin Magic by Rubinstein is a good read, well worth the investment.

This particular trick is credited to Percy Abbott in Tarbell #8. The writer describes the effect as being brought to his attention by Percy as "an off-beat effect from the Orient".

You'll find it in the ORIENTAL MAGIC section (lesson 96/page 115) under the name CHINESE COLOR-CHANGING COINS. The instructions are very detailed and illustrated well. The patter revolves around the various ways the Chinese count their money.

Have FUN!

Julie

Thanks Julie!!!! Mystery Solved!!

OK! Let me look in my big book under "Oriental Magic," I was looking for "coin tricks!" Silly me.

F.Y.I. Volume #8 is not part of your big book reprint of the original course. This book includes only the original material in the mail order course. My understanding is that the Tannen volumes 1-6 comprise the original course, but with some items left out and some items added (that could be purchased from Tannen's).

It would be interesting to know details of specific tricks deleted and added.
Anyone know?

J

FOUND IT!

I sat down and flipped through EVERY page of the Tarbell Original Course! It turns out it's in Lesson 37, page 511, (There are 898 pages!) "Chinese Color Changing Coins"

This, by the way, is the book;

https://www.amazon.com/Original-Tarbell-......15418376

Mystery solved!!

Excellent. You are to be commended Ed for your perseverance!

Apparently this is an example of a trick that was deleted from the original mail order course by Tannen's only to reappear in the much later volume #8.

There's a lesson here somewhere...

Julie

That's very odd, because this book is supposed to BE the original mail order course!

Thank everybody for their help and positivity.